More than fate in 08

A new year brings a sense of reflection, hope, and the opportunity to measure how far we have come in society through the years.  One sign in the Obama camp may have put it best: "GOT HOPE?"  2008 provides a very special chance to do all of these things, as a presidential election year, american society from all walks of life will rally around issues of governance and politics.  In this year's election for president history will be made, with the withdrawl of John Edwards from the democratic nomination process, leaves the last two contestants standing.... Hillary Clinton (the first woman presidential candidate nominee) and Barack Obama (the first African American presidential candidate nominee).  Whether either of these candidates wins the national election for the presidency that is another thing, but for just this moment, we can can look back and see the progress of our society.  As I see it, it has been long overdue to have a woman or an African-American in the White House.  This article is not about the president, I want to put some attention on a few other things that have been missing in contemporary American Society for a long time like health care for everyone regardless of financial situation, equal schooling for every child, and a way to initiate immigrants into society so they can fully take advantage of the American dream.

Politicians slide from one side of the isle to the other on healthcare.  It is time for people to stand up and say that making national healthcare a priority is IMPERATIVE for the wellbeing of future generations in this country.  We can no longer thwart the lives of people just because we think having a national healthcare system is the gateway to communism.  As we see with things like presidential elections in this country, change may take a long time in the United States, and this change from old conventional wisdom needs to happen now.  Look around everyone, we won, communism is not a threat to the American way of life.  How long will it take to get caught up with our allies like England and the rest of the developed world?

The public education system is a joke in this country.  How can the education of the next generation of leaders be subjected to the political pandering of rich families from state to state. As I see it, your education status shouldn't depend on whether your mother and father bought a house/condo in a well to do suburb or pocket of a city.  What happens to the children that were not given the opportunity to learn from the best teachers or given the resources to succeed developmentally?  They get left behind, and cannot compete for scholarships and college entrance.  If a student graduates from high school and goes to Harvard, Yale or Stanford its not because he or she is the brightest but had parents that put him or her in the position to succeed.  If we were in the Olympics and two runners got to start at the 50 meter mark and the other 6 had to start at the starting line, the two runners with the head start wouldn't be awarded a Gold or Silver metal.  In this country we are building and maintaining a permanent underclass and that has to stop!

In newspapers and from politicians we hear about immigration reform, but what we really need is a more comprehensive change to the way we look at people coming in to this country. Throughout American history, immigrants have been detested and opposed by the masses. Why? Are we so afraid that we will lose our jobs to illegal immigrants that we spout off secondary racism?  The way I see it, the American public needs to rise above the fear of a stagnant job market or looking at the world through the lenses of a hunter-gatherer.  We need to evolve, and I know these changes take time, hopefully they will be made in our lifetime.  As spoken in the movie the Great Debaters, "the time for justice, the time for freedom and the time for equality is always right now!"  We can make these things happen, and remind our hearts and minds that there is more than fate in 08.